"I need clarification on this issue."
OR
"I need to be clarified on this issue."
Would they be equally natural? Is there a difference in meaning?
Another (correct) option would be, "This issue needs to be clarified."The first is correct; the second isn't.
The first is correct; the second isn't.
"There's certain issue I need clarified." ?
"There's certain issue I need clarified." ?
This might work in my dialect, but in standard English you would need to say "issue which needs to be clarified" or "issue which needs clarifying."
Also it's "a" certain issue.
I am from western Pennsylvania. I understand your statement completely. You need the work done. You need the issue clarified. Which means you need someone to do the work so that it is then "done." Or someone to clarify the meaning to you.
That's not standard English, however useful and concise this formulation is.
Even in the standard English phrasing "I need this issue to be clarified" it is understood that you need someone else to do the clarifying.
I believe we discussed this very utterance a couple weeks ago.
It sounds OK to me this way. Perhaps this type of use will become standard.
"Needs done" is ok in this context. "...doing the work that America needs to be done" makes no sense to me. Either "...that America needs to do" or "..that America needs to have done" would also work in this context."............doing the work that America needs done."? It's an extract from the Barack Obama's address. Why would the speaker use here "needs done" not "needs to be done"? I can give you the whole sentence, if you need.